Last week, I was fortunate enough to have two back-to-back readings in the greater Boston area: one at The Harvard Coop, and one at Comicazi in Davis Square. For my first readings ever, I think they went over pretty well. Here are some things I learned:

1: Speeches are scary, but the worst thing that can happen is that they suck, and you laugh about it later. As soon as you're OK with making a fool of yourself, it's much less nerve-wracking, and you can have fun with it.

2: Networking and meeting the organizers of the event is half the fun. These are writers and book lovers who have chosen a career that surrounds literature and art. Not only are they interesting and fun, they are the guys (and girls) you want on your side.

3: No matter how many people show up, what really matters is the support of friends and family.

4: Free doughnuts bring people to an event. Those people may or may not be homeless, and they will probably ask strange questions. Keep bringing doughnuts, and get better at diverting unrelated questions.

5: Listen to advice and ask for criticism. Take it all to heart, and keep improving.

As an author, I want more reviews. As a reviewer, I have an extremely hard time paying for something that I do for other people at no charge. Still, I want the boost of a Book Tour- so I'm doing some research. After getting some sound advice from author friends, scouring Google, and browsing the posts the Absolute Write Water Cooler, I've come up with a list of legitimate-looking blog tour hosts that I'm considering. I'm hoping that this post will be helpful to someone. If you have any advice, please chime in!

Here goes... from most to least bang for your buck (Disclaimer: in calculating "bang" I did not weigh in the probable inverse relationship between price and quality of reviews.)

Bookmonster "Name Before the Masses" tourwww.bmptours.com$50 gets you 22-31 book reviews. That's $2.27 per review, max.My opinion: This is by far the cheapest place I've seen. It's tempting, but something smells fishy. There are a lot of broken links and a lot of sponsors at .blogspot.com. Nothing explicitly wrong with it, but something's off.

Orangeberry: "OpsMore60" planwww.orangeberrybooktours.com$290 gets you 60 book reviews. That's $4.83 per review.My opinion: Well, not many people had nice things to say about Orangeberry at the Absolute Write Water Cooler. As a reviewer myself, I've been asked to review books that had a heck of a lot of 4 & 5 star Amazon reviews, all the same length, all original but somehow flat. Those books don't pan out. I've got a sneaking suspicion that services like this use a lot of fake pseudonyms. On the other hand, that's a lot of reviews for not much money. Is it worth a risk? Maybe.

Reading Addiction: "Mixed Addiction" tour - on 15% sale for the month of Marchreadingaddictionvbt.blogspot.com/$64 gets you 10 reviews. That's $6.38 per review. (If you book in March)My opinion: That seems like a fair price, and I heard decent things over at the Water Cooler. However, their website isn't exactly beautiful and I have a hard time giving money to someone who's too cheap to buy their own URL. Still, I'll consider it.

Promotional Book Tours: "Just Reviews" Tourwww.promotionalbooktours.com$125 for 10 reviews. That's $12.50 per review.My opinion: They guarantee Goodreads and Amazon reviews as well, which is good. I haven't heard anything bad about them, but maybe I didn't look deep enough. It seems like a decent mid-range gamble. Professional website, etc.

Kismet Book Tours: currently closed to new bookswww.kismetbt.com/$320 gets you 20 reviews (I've heard). That's $16 per review.My opinion: Those numbers are hear-say. It got good recommendations from some author friends, and I guess they have a selection process of sorts. If your book is coming out in 2015, research them in advance. I'm sad I missed my chance.

Premier Virtual Author Book Tours: Basic 25 blog tour - 20% off for indie authorswww.litfusegroup.com$599 for 25 reviews, plus other appearances. That's 23.97 per review.My opinion: It's not cheap- and if you aren't an indie author, the price is a lot higher. I inquired about pricing plans and got a strangely formatted, badly edited email. The site is sparse and rather suspicious as well. But like everyone else in the world, I'm a sucker for getting 20% off.

Book Nerd Tours: "The Super Nerd"www.booknerdtours.com$225 gets you 6 or 7 reviews, plus some extra guest posts/interviews and whatnot. That's $37.50 per review, max.My opinion: The reviewer in me is happy that they don't guarantee too many reviews- it makes me think people will actually, honestly, read and review the book with the intention of reaching their own set of fans. Book bloggers are swamped, and the legit ones don't read just any book- they read books they think they'll like. They don't say nice things about just any book either, and I want to hear an honest opinion. But the author in me says, "More reviews! That's not enough reviews for two hundred dollars!"

Novel Publicity: Personalized Tourswww.novelpublicity.com/$1,000 gets you 20 blog spots. That's $50 per blog spot (not reviews!).My opinion: That's a heck of a lot, and it doesn't even say if the 20 blog appearances are reviews or not. I'm not going to pay for it, but my publisher works with them (or maybe an affiliate of theirs) and I believe they are legit. Shell out the big bucks, and it might be worth it. They do guarantee a certain amount of traffic on the blogs, so that's a plus.

TLC Book Tours: The ten-blog tourwww.tlcbooktours.com$549 gets you 10 reviews. That's $54 per review!!!My opinion: Holy cow! That's expensive. Like a grocery shopper looking at over-priced organic food, my first impression is, "They must be legit." But even if they are, is it worth it? I'm not sure.

Unfortunately, us humans have this tendency to forget that other humans are, well, humans, as soon as we have a degree of separation. You wouldn't yell, "Hey, asshole, pay attention!" to your elderly neighbor if he bumped into you on the way to get the mail... but you just might let it slip when some other old man accidentally cuts you off in traffic. If that's what happens when we put some windows and doors between us, you can imagine that it can get pretty ugly when there's a screen and thousands of miles of distance between us. Over the last few weeks, I have spent an embarrassing amount of time on Amazon browsing reviews. Here's what happens: I go to my Amazon page and check my reviews. Nothing new. Then I wonder how my indie author acquaintances are doing. I check out one of their books. I think, "Wow, I hope I get that many reviews some day." Then I think, "Who the hell gave them a one star review? That book was awesome!" Then I read the one star review. Then my stomach turns and I desperately think of ways to get my book out of cyberspace before anyone decides to do that to me.

I'll admit, as a book reviewer I have written my share of negative reviews. I believe I even wrote an unapologetic, scathing review once. But after corresponding with countless indie authors, I have learned to give a disclaimer stating any personal bias I might carry (we all have a bias), and also to balance my reviews with an honest compliment. And you know what? You can almost always find an honest compliment. It's actually quite easy.

If you can't find an honest compliment, and you feel the need to give a one star review, that's completely acceptable. All I ask is you remember that authors are people too. As a general courtesy, don't put anything in a review that you wouldn't tell them in person. Personal jabs like, "Don't quit your day job" and, "this author is CRAZY!!!" are hurtful and unnecessary.

Now I know why Sylvia Plath stuck her head in an oven.

(I feel like I should apologize for that tasteless comment.)

Sorry, my point is this: Readers, don't forget that us authors are people too. And authors, when you get those negative reviews, remember that art is subjective and us humans are inconsiderate. Don't take it personally.

As for me, I'm bracing myself for the one-star reviews. I think I'll feel better once it's over. The waiting is the worst part.

First and foremost, I would like to thank my mother, who has been my toughest critic and loudest cheerleader throughout all of my literary misadventures and, in fact, my entire life. I also owe thanks to my father and brother, not only for the feedback and encouragement they gave me while I was writing this book, but also for the love, support and reality checks that I depend on every day. Without the help of my online literary colleagues, The Atheist's Prayer would never have been written. I am forever grateful for the critiques and support given to me by my friends from Underground Book Reviews: Brian Braden, Katie French and Kimberly Shursen. When this book was in its infancy, many early readers slogged through the rough-draft pages. I owe a huge thanks to friends and colleagues, and even a couple of strangers, who took a stab at reading my first novel and provided valuable advice. And of course, my writing would not be what it is today if it weren’t for my Snakefoot teachers, my high-school and college English teachers, and the friends and family that I couldn’t live without. A special shout-out goes to the talented people who helped me turn a pile of words into a piece of art. Thanks to Pela Via for her input on structure and Scott Alexander Jones for his thorough copyedit. Emma Myeesha contributed a fantastic piece of art, and Grace DuVal did an outstanding job of turning it into a book cover. Finally, the team at Perfect Edge Books has been wonderful to work with, and I am proud to be part of such a forward-thinking and talented group of individuals.